The Hatfield and McCoys are at it again, meeting in the Back Bay for the first time this season. Six months after Game 26 (the ALCS finale) ended when Aaron "Fucking" Boone hit a Tim Wakefield cupcake into some dude's beer down the left field line. Boone struck again in the off-season when he got hurt playing basketball and the Yanks landed A-Rod as a replacement. It's just too bad Boone won't be there in Boston this weekend to accept his bean ball in the ear.
Last season was pure theater. The ALCS was one of the best ever and Game 3 was an ESPN instant boxing classic before it even ended. Perhaps Don Zimmer should have been wearing that army helmet he has when he decided to play the bull and charge the Dominican matador.
But let's face it the Sox-Yanks series in April - whether these four games in the Fens or the three the following weekend in the Bronx -- won't live up to the hype it's generated. The media has jumped on this like Homer Simpson on a donut. Even a spring game was covered by approximately 250 media members, and some folks with apparent brain freeze from that fierce New England winter paid up to $250 a ticket to see future brawlers from Pawtucket and Columbus play. This just won't be the same. The rivalry is hot but unless King George and John Henry wrestle in the parking lot, the opening series between the clubs will be different.
And here's why. Enemy number one: Roger Clemens in playing catch in Houston. So is his best bud Andy Pettitte, who the Sox always struggled to hit. Yankee fighters Jeff Nelson and "Who the hell is Karim Garcia anyway" are playing prison ball somewhere and won't be picking on any Fenway groundskeepers, and roly-poly Zimmer is napping in the Tampa grass. Across the diamond, Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon are injured; instigator Pedro won't toe the rubber to take aim at the wrists of Yankee batters and Grady Little will be watching from his couch.
This is nothing more than a bit of posturing -- the playful banter before the heavyweight fight many suspect will come in October. Sure sometimes those weigh-ins turn into tussles and that's what everyone is hoping for, isn't it, but it's April, and rivalry virgins - A-Rod, Kevin Brown, Gary Sheffield, Javier Vasquez, Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, Pokey Reese and Terry Francona won't jump into the ring quite yet.
